International

The MU International Office is the first point of contact for international students applying for full-degree, Erasmus, Study Abroad, and Summer School programmes, and supports MU students who wish to study abroad.

Welcome to the Department of Geography Maynooth University. Geography is the study of the Earth as our Home. We explore environment (e.g. how much climate change are we causing and how quickly?), place (e.g. what sorts of attachments to home do people form and what happens when these are disrupted by migration?), and space (e.g. how is Ireland and its regions affected by economic globalisation?). Our students are taught by international experts in all these fields. [Find out more]

Since the inaugural competition in 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has been a bastion of European pop culture, as well as a flashpoint for debate over relationships between different European countries, and even as to what makes a country European.

The Festival of Food Sovereignty, to be held April 14, 2018 will bring together university staff and students with civil society to celebrate and explore the possibilities of constructing food sovereignty in Ireland and beyond.

Why would a human geographer study swimming? For Dr Ronan Foley, it’s part of a long-standing interest in therapeutic landscapes – places that are health-enabling. Ronan’s first book, Healing Waters, examines the role of water in therapeutic landscapes in Ireland. His research for that book took him around the country, to holy wells and seaweed baths and spas, both historic and modern.

Now, his focus is on blue spaces, where water can be used to promote human health. Ronan has been working with an international group of colleagues to further develop the concept of blue space. He has written about blue spaces in Ireland in a recent article in Emotion, Space & Society, based on his research with outdoor swimmers in the 40 Foot (Dublin), the Guillemene (near Tramore, Waterford), and The Pollock Holes (Kilkee, Clare).

Not content with braving the elements on the Irish coast, Ronan has also extended his study of therapeutic landscapes to other natural environments.

With colleagues in UCD and ERMA, he is researching the relationship between green and blue infrastructure (parks, water bodies) and health for the EAP. He’s also a partner in a UK ESRC research project that examines the role of natural environments in the emotional geographies of people who are visually impaired, and he organised a conference session on nature, illness and impairment at this year’s Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers’ conference in London in August 2017. And it’s not all research. Ronan shares his passion for therapeutic landscapes with a lucky group of students on the Department’s MA in Geography, as well as co-ordinating our MSc in GIS and Remote Sensing. He is also looking forward to exploring a new blue space on campus if or when the replacement swimming pool is built.
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